V.O. Diedlaff's Blog, page 2
December 1, 2017
Money Virus
Malik drove us to Kali’s studio in the city and we ended up at. It wasn’t a performance night so we had the place to ourselves. Brooke and Malik changed into their dance clothes and performed for Kali and I. When they'd done and were changing clothes Kali and I chatted about the performance. She surprised me when out of nowhere she said, “They concern me.”
“Who do?”
“The Oligarch.”
“Oligarch?”
“The ones who control things. For years they’ve invaded the media, swayed people’s emotions, aggravated poverty and suffering—all to feed their greed. But they were only getting started. I’ve heard they’ve perfected something called the Money Virus. If that’s true, nothing will be able to stop them. Americans have lost their ability to discriminate between reality and make-believe. The money virus can only make it worse.”
“What do you mean they can’t distinguish between reality and make-believe?”
“They’ve managed to scramble politics with reality TV. The virus feeds into the pre-existing gullibility. All the small denomination bills are coated with it. It's affected the thinking of 38 percent of Americans now."
"Whoa, if it's that contagious, isn’t the Oligarch worried that it will affect them as well?"
"They never have to touch money. They’re isolated from the rest of the world and consider themselves superior and entitled to oppress the masses. There's no reason to worry about them catching the money virus when they already have it in another form."
“You’re saying they’re already infected with another virus?”
“No, I’m not saying that at all. What I’m saying is that certain attitudes that the wealthy have limit their thinking about more important matters. In other words, they’re missing areas of compassion that many others exercise regularly.”
“Oh. Why’d they design the money virus anyway?”
“They became desperate in 2008. For years they’d been promoting their agenda through think tanks, academic endowments and scholarships, and through direct political contributions. They’d achieved much for themselves during the Bush years, but they always want more. They were devastated when Obama became president. They needed something stronger than what they’d used before, something Orwellian. And when they began working on the money virus in 2010, they thought they might have found their solution.
During the Clinton years they’d discovered that memories of past events could be blocked with a non-stop repetition of a counter version of history. But it didn’t work perfectly. There were always a few that questioned the narrative and flipped channels for comparison. In many cases, that was simply addressed by planting hosts with similar views on other stations. But some, flipped more broadly than that.
They needed something that was even more certain, something that would render them more childlike, less critical in their thinking, less able to distinguish fairy tales from realities.”
I was still thinking about that when Brooke and Malik rejoined us.
“Who do?”
“The Oligarch.”
“Oligarch?”
“The ones who control things. For years they’ve invaded the media, swayed people’s emotions, aggravated poverty and suffering—all to feed their greed. But they were only getting started. I’ve heard they’ve perfected something called the Money Virus. If that’s true, nothing will be able to stop them. Americans have lost their ability to discriminate between reality and make-believe. The money virus can only make it worse.”
“What do you mean they can’t distinguish between reality and make-believe?”
“They’ve managed to scramble politics with reality TV. The virus feeds into the pre-existing gullibility. All the small denomination bills are coated with it. It's affected the thinking of 38 percent of Americans now."
"Whoa, if it's that contagious, isn’t the Oligarch worried that it will affect them as well?""They never have to touch money. They’re isolated from the rest of the world and consider themselves superior and entitled to oppress the masses. There's no reason to worry about them catching the money virus when they already have it in another form."
“You’re saying they’re already infected with another virus?”
“No, I’m not saying that at all. What I’m saying is that certain attitudes that the wealthy have limit their thinking about more important matters. In other words, they’re missing areas of compassion that many others exercise regularly.”
“Oh. Why’d they design the money virus anyway?”
“They became desperate in 2008. For years they’d been promoting their agenda through think tanks, academic endowments and scholarships, and through direct political contributions. They’d achieved much for themselves during the Bush years, but they always want more. They were devastated when Obama became president. They needed something stronger than what they’d used before, something Orwellian. And when they began working on the money virus in 2010, they thought they might have found their solution.
During the Clinton years they’d discovered that memories of past events could be blocked with a non-stop repetition of a counter version of history. But it didn’t work perfectly. There were always a few that questioned the narrative and flipped channels for comparison. In many cases, that was simply addressed by planting hosts with similar views on other stations. But some, flipped more broadly than that.
They needed something that was even more certain, something that would render them more childlike, less critical in their thinking, less able to distinguish fairy tales from realities.”
I was still thinking about that when Brooke and Malik rejoined us.
November 20, 2017
Keyboard blues
Junjie assures me that he won’t leave me in the lurch. That’s the last thing on my mind at the moment. I must finish this book. It’s the only way I can tell the country how much danger its in. Junjie knows about the book and approves. But he worries that I might offend the wrong people with my writing. I'm not worried. I just hope I can get a publisher interested. Once the book is announced, it will be out of my hands. Then it will be just me and Junjie.
